H. Gardens Bans All New Bingo Games Indefinitely

HAWAIIAN GARDENS — Despite being warned that the city could face legal action from two jilted bingo applicants, the City Council Tuesday night indefinitely barred any new bingo operations in the city.

The council passed an emergency ordinance that was drafted to block bingo applications from two charitable organizations, Serenity Church Inc. of Anaheim and the Palm Springs-based Guide Dogs of the Desert Inc. Both applied in October to open bingo games in the Lakewood Elks Club building, 12507 E. Carson St.

“I am concerned and alarmed that the image of Hawaiian Gardens is being portrayed as a bingo city,” Mayor Kathleen M. Navejas said before the council vote. “I do not want a proliferation of bingo parlors. We can offer more to our residents than just bingo.”

The new ban, which comes five months after the council lifted a year-long moratorium on bingo licenses, also touched off a heated debate between Navejas and Councilwoman H. M. (Lennie) Wagner.

Wagner, the only council member to oppose the indefinite ban, recently received an offer to sell some land to a group that is purchasing the 2-story Elks Club. That group, Hawaiian Gardens Property Inc., had hoped to lease floor space to the two charitable organizations for the bingo games, according to city records.

One of 5 Parcels

Wagner’s property is one of five parcels adjoining the Elks Club. Navejas unsuccessfully sought to block Wagner from joining other council members in the vote, charging that she had a conflict of interest because of the group’s interest in her property.

Wagner denied any conflict and said she has rejected the purchase offer.

“I am totally opposed to this,” Wagner said before she cast the only dissenting vote. “Anyone in a charity organization should be allowed” to obtain a bingo license, she said.

There is one major bingo operator in the city. Dr. Irving Moskowitz, a local businessman, was granted a bingo license in September to open Nutowne Bingo less than a mile from the 2-story Elks Club building.

The Nutowne Bingo game is in what was once the Cooper Fellowship Bingo Parlor, which closed unexpectedly early this year when manager Jack Blackburn suffered a heart ailment. The game grossed $2 million a month in the charitable organization’s heyday, city officials said.

Bingo receipts from the Moskowitz Foundation’s charitable game have come close to that in the three months it has been in business. In November, for instance, the foundation grossed $1.5 million, from which the city received $15,000 in license fees.

Attorney Laurence Wiener, who represents the two nonprofit bingo applicants, said he probably would challenge the new anti-bingo law, which is effective immediately. As well as banning the issuance of new bingo licenses, it also prohibits the modification or transfer of existing permits.

The law further directs staff to study “the benefits, if any, that bingo revenues are used for, the needs of the citizens of the City of Hawaiian Gardens, the effect on the city of new or expanded bingo games, (and) the utilization of charitable funds in the city.”

But Wiener argued that the ban violated state law in four ways:

He said that the council decision violates antitrust laws--Moskowitz would be the only major bingo parlor in the city, therefore holding a virtual monopoly. Second, he claimed that there was no urgent situation to justify an urgency ordinance that allows the council to forgo the normally required public notice and hearing process.

Third, Wiener said, the ban violates contract laws. The two organizations had submitted their applications two months ago and were in negotiations with the city to have them approved.

Fourth, the lawyer continued, the ban violates the organizations’ right to due process. The city two weeks ago denied the organizations’ applications, saying that the Elks Club is too close to residential property. The organizations’ attorneys were appealing that denial.

“I do a lot of work with cities in Southern California,” Wiener told the council. “I think there are several problems that the City Council should consider before they consider passing such an ordinance and bringing a possible great deal of liability down upon the city.”

Sale to Close

The $1.6-million sale of the Elks building is scheduled to close Dec. 31, Manager Ron Johnson said this week.

Hawaiian Gardens Property had planned to lease one floor of the building to the Serenity Church and one to Guide Dogs of the Desert for $5,000 a month each, according to the bingo applications on file at City Hall.

The chairman of Hawaiian Gardens Property, Edward Struthers, said Wednesday that the purchase of the Elks Club will proceed despite the loss of the potential tenants. He declined to say what the corporation will do with the floor space once it takes ownership.

“That will be discussed in the next few days,” Struthers said, adding that he was disappointed with the council decision. “It was just not done the right way.”

Struthers’ firm has been seeking to purchase the five Carson Street properties--including Wagner’s lot--through local real estate agent Dee DeBaun. In an interview at Tuesday night’s meeting, DeBaun said he was contacted several months ago by Struthers to begin negotiating for the properties.

During her council debate with Navejas, Wagner said she was made a “ridiculous offer” by Hawaiian Gardens Property and has refused to sell her land for “at least the next three years.”

The 12-year-old Serenity Church is headquartered in a 2-story house at 703 N. Lemon St. in Anaheim. The Times telephoned the church Tuesday afternoon and reached Frank Rose, who identified himself as a church member. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, who investigated aspects of the church’s bingo application on the city’s behalf, said Rose also is a veteran bingo promoter.

Declined Comment

Rose said that the nondenominational church has four locations in Southern California and a Middle East mission that helps homeless Palestinian children. He declined to say who acts as pastor.

Rose subsequently attended the council meeting but declined to comment on the decision or say where the church congregation meets for services.

The president of Serenity Church Inc., Richard Dauphine, is also the president of a bingo operation in Adelanto, according to state records. The Adelanto bingo operation, Colonial Alliance, lists Serenity’s 703 N. Lemon St., Anaheim, as a mailing address. Neither Dauphine nor Serenity’s vice president Jay La Rue--who lists the church’s headquarters as his home address on the bingo application--could be reached for comment.

Malcolm K. Gordon, vice president of Guide Dogs of the Desert, said that his charitable organization has been training and providing free guide dogs to the blind for the past 14 years. In a telephone interview from his Morongo Valley home, Gordon complained that the city’s attempt to halt the bingo games would hurt the organization’s fund-raising efforts.

“We rely on this type of fund-raising,” Gordon said. “It was a way for us to collect money.”

The two organizations were not the only ones interested in starting up a bingo business in the city, city officials said. Among others who have expressed interest recently, is California Commer Club owner John Mgrdichian, who also attended the council meeting.

“I don’t think it’s a fair decision,” Mgrdichian said.